Amélie makes a disgusted face at the strange creature that dropped down on her. She lets the lantern fall from her hand as she steps back from it. She fires two arrows at it in rapid succession.
Her first shot misses and sinks deep into the muck of the cavern floor. The other arrow strikes the odd creature, wounding it but not finishing it off.
Amkarang turns towards the creature that dropped on Amelie and swings at it twice.
Amkarang misses with his first blow, but his follow-up swing struck true and crushes the strange aberration.
The remaining one lurches forward, still determined to find some weak spot in Benedict's armor but unsuccessful. Its claws again rake against his mail ineffectually.
Whether it was Grum's forceful command or the heavy strike from his falchion, the creature obeys perfectly. It dies.
The tunnel abruptly ends at a wide pit. Checking it, the hole descends roughly 40 feet to a lower chamber. Rough handholds have been carved into the side of the pit.
Benedict doesn't even have time to react before the fight is over.
"Thank you... Now let's have a look."
He peers over the edge of the pit with his Darkvision, looking at the lower chamber.
If nobody sees anything, he'll begin climbing down.
The stone ladder abruptly ends at the height of the ceiling, requiring a short drop to the ground. Benedict lands without issue in a vast chamber that seems more finished than the upper chambers. Walls of smooth masonry stones intersect a mirrorlike marble floor. A statue of a twisting, insectile form stands in the center of the large chamber. Though it appears chitinous, it twists as if a beetle-like god were flowing like water. Reliefs along alcoves to the east and west depict rough-hewn reptilian forms gathered around a step pyramid. Rough purple gems have been wedged into the reliefs, forming starburst patters.
The southern wall has partially collapsed, cracking the floor and blocking what was once the only hall leading out of the room behind tons of stone and rubble.
You see a glint of gold, a few bits of what could be treasure, and a partial skeleton. They suddenly move in concert, and you suddenly realize the objects are suspended in a near-transparent cube of slime that lurches toward you!
Benedict looks at the strange statues and wonders who built these chambers. He contemplates the need to learn something about religion someday.
Jie slowly climbs down the ladder and looks around
She wipes the sweat out of eyes and can not see the creature that Grum pointed at.
Amkarang climbs down the ladder. Despite not being able to see the creature, Amkarang readies his meteor hammer.
While Benedict casts about for the threat, Grum spots it and draws his weapon.
While Jie and Amkarang begin descending the ladder, Amélie shines the lantern's light down the hole.
The strange translucent shape squelches forward, sensing the movement.
Then a pseudopod stretches out and tries to smack into the orc warrior!
He ducks beneath the polyp just in time to avoid contact.
"Gah! What is that?"
Benedict is slow to see the blob, but thanks to Grum's warning is able to react. He draws the battleaxe, strikes the blob, and steps back.
Jie hesitates climbing down the ladder. She squints into the darkness, trying to find a target.
Grum carves deep gashes into the gelatinous mass, but the quivering thing keeps moving toward him. Benedict, too, slashes at it with his axe, but it's hard to tell how much damage they're doing to the semitransparent blob.
Sir Kingston drops out of the pouch exposing the magical light. His deft maneuver manages to keep clear of the grasping pseudopod and he remains safe for the moment.
The squarish blob mindlessly moves toward Grum and Jie, threatening to engulf them in its oozing form!
After climbing down the ladder, Jie is surprised to find the monster right in her face. She throws herself to the side in a desperate attempt from being engulfed.
Her attempt is ultimately unsuccessful and she draws her dagger to try and cut her way out.
The gelatinous mass heaves itself on top of Grum and Jie, covering them in its slimy bulk. The goo is a paralytic, and they instantly feel their muscles go numb and lifeless. However, Grum's attack was too much for the ooze and it discorporates around them, losing cohesion and slumping into a hissing wet mess!
Jie and Grum are paralyzed for rounds as they lay on the floor in the middle of the remains of the goo.
"Grum! Jie!"
Benedict is alarmed, and carries them out of the goo, his Aasimar heritage protecting him from any lingering acid.
"Amélie, will they be okay?"
While the archer checks on the paralyzed warriors, Benedict looks around the room. If there are tunnels leading out, he'll take his shield and axe and stand guard while the others recover.
He also tries to tell Sir Kingston that Grum will be okay. "Yes, yes, he'll get up soon. I think."
Amélie drops down into the room and goes to inspect her two paralyzed allies. She frets over them, but doesn't have any idea when they'll get better.
Benedict stands guard, but doesn't immediately notice any way out of this room.
Benedict will wait and watch, but if they are only paralyzed for a minute, they will be moving again before he implements any plan to get them back to safety.
As they start to move, he is relieved, and asks "Are you okay?"
Then he begins searching the room for an exit.
After a minute passes the paralyzed people awake, messy but alive. With the lights brought down into this chamber everyone can now observe it. Room description here.
The gelatinous ooze had contained several bits of undigested treasure that is now easily picked up and cleaned off. It had contained a masterwork longsword, a gold holy symbol of Iomedae (worth 100 gp), a breastplate emblazoned with a bronze angel, and what looks to be two potions.
Benedict's survey of the chambers reveals two concealed doors to the east and west. They once would have been likely well-hidden doors, but the centuries of wear have made their outlines fairly obvious.
Benedict makes a note to gather up the items on the way back. Hopefully the adepts back at the camp can tell him if anything is better than what he has.
He can try identifying the potions, at least.
But he is unable to.
He readies his shield and axe again, preparing to move on.
"West?"
As Jie begins to move again, she gets up with look of disgust. "Oh, this is disgusting." she says while she tries to scrape some of the gunk off, winding up with just more on her hands. "I think I'm going to take a dip in that pond in the upper cave." she remarks, heading towards the ladder. She pauses, realizing that as slippery as her hands are, she might have trouble climbing up.
While Jie decides what to do about the goop on her, Benedict wrenches open the secret door to the west. The chamber beyond the hidden door is all but buried in a pile of rubble. Finished walls encircle part of the room but end in a collapse to the south. Dried flesh and wisps of white hair still cling to a handful of ancient bones lying on the floor.
A trio of small-sized skeletons pound ineffectually at chunks of metal in a cold, unlit forge at the opposite end of the door.
These are skeletons and have resistance to attacks other than bludgeoning.
These are likely skeletons of Derro, given their small stature, bulbous heads and large eye sockets.
If there is no apparent exit from the room, Benedict sees no need to engage in a fight at this time. He closes the secret door.
"East? We can always go back and deal with the skeletons later, but I think we want to make sure we've got all the trogs dealt with first."
"I didn't recognize the creatures that those skeletons came from. Small. Maybe the troglodytes have a necromancer? And came across some goblins?
But the skeletons were mimicking the movements of smiths, and there was a forge there, though unlit. So the earlier occupants of these chambers? Maybe gnomes?"
"That's great news!" If we move here then we have a ready made forge for metalwork. I'm betting they are gnomes." Resigned to walking around 'slimed' she just makes sure that her hands and arms are slime free so it doesn't interfere with her fighting.
Pushing open the door to the east, it's fairly evident that this passageway is used more often than the west. The next chamber is another long hall. Tiny, intricate carvings line the walls of this room, forming great columns of text. Much of it has cracked and crumbled, and the entire southern wall is fractured, with a yawning cavern beyond.
The text is written in Aklo, and describes a history of the derro -- though their insanity greatly colors the facts -- and their ascent from the darkness deep below and their cowering from the great torch in the sky above.
There's also a reference to a deity they call the Excavator. A strange passage reads, "grandmother, in seeking the Excavator, turned her eyes to the Stone, and to the Steel, and finally to Woe."
There are no threats apparent in this room. Moving on to the crumbled and open southern wall, the party sees the tunnel open into a long, irregular cavern running north to south. Streaks of purple crystal run along one wall. To the east, the room descends down at a steep angle to a tunnel. A low, ethereal moan rises from the cold depths, and a barricade built of masonry blocks and crudely quarried chunks of stone partially blocks the wide, low tunnel to the south.
Benedict tries reading the strange text.
His knowledge of Dwarven and Gnome helps him.
Benedict relays what he can decipher.
"A history of the derro - must be what those skeletons were - and some sort of code about Grandmother and a god called the Excavator."
Moving past the moaning deep passage, the group enters another chamber. A partial collapse mars the symmetry of this large, circular chamber. Crude carvings of reptilian heads and bodies cover the wall, snaking around empty sockets in the stone walls. A thin, bluish mist hovers in the air, swirling gently. The mist rises about halfway up the walls, like a diaphanous ocean.
A strange creature suddenly stirs, causing the mist to swirl and eddy. Seemingly made of crystal, the creature appears vaguely scorpion-shaped and roughly the size of a large dog. Its beady, gemlike eyes look at Benedict and Grum and starts to scuttle toward them!
This is an outside from the elemental plane of earth called a crysmal. These creatures are neutral, and primarily focused on eating crystals and crystal-like gemstones.
"Well, ah, I'm not the greatest fan of scorpions, but this one doesn't look especially normal. Anyone know what that thing is?"
A strange creature suddenly stirs, causing the mist to swirl and eddy. Seemingly made of crystal, the creature appears vaguely scorpion-shaped and roughly the size of a large dog. Its beady, gemlike eyes look at Benedict and Grum and starts to scuttle toward them!
Benedict has no idea what the strange creature is, and goes on Total Defense. (AC 26)
Jie looks at the strange creature. "Do we shoot it, or try to talk to it. I don't speak gnome. Or crystal. she adds, wryly.
"I don't speak crystal either!"
Benedict will of course fight back if attacked, but doesn't know if that's necessary. So he'll dodge. But he'll try speaking Dwarven since dwarves like gems. It's the best he's got.
Amélie freezes in place, wary of the strange gemstone creature.
The gemstone scorpion the size of a large dog moves straight up to Benedict.
It jumps on him. It's not attacking, per se, but it's exhibiting behaviors that seem like it's domesticated and looking for a treat.
Initiative:
"Uh, just dodge! I don't know! We can always hit back if it is hostile."
The gemlike creature jumps on Benedict, wagging its strange tail back and forth. It noses at his hands, then his pouches and packs like it's looking for something.
It's not immediately hostile.
Benedict brings out a pint of lamp oil. "Is this what you want? It's like rock juice. Or something."
He opens the flask for the creature to sniff (can it smell?) and then takes a look around the room. Can he tell where the mist is coming from?
Amkarang pulls a sling bullet out of his pouch and hands it to the creature while saying to the party, ”It’s a rock. Might want to eat the rock?”
The mist seems like a natural feature of the cavern. Looking around, there are small divots within the walls in the same types of patterns as found in the previous chambers. However, in this section, there are none of the small gemstones in the sockets, as if someone or something has pried them out.
The crystal creature seems uninterested in the oil or the sling bullet, though it inspects each object with initial interest.
Looking at the walls, Benedict thinks, It eats gems?
Rough purple gems have been wedged into the reliefs, forming starburst patters.
Benedict goes back to the gelatinous cube's room. He pries out two gems and opens the door to the skeletons' forge.
If the rock creature is following him, he gives one gem to the creature and throws the other into the forge."Good doggy. Take care of those for us, will you?"
Then he goes back to where the gem-creature had been.
The creature follows Benedict, though it seems increasingly agitated that he hasn't fed it yet. When he leads it into the room with gemstones embedded into the walls, it spins around excitedly. By the time he's pried out a few gemstones, it's already attempting to climb up one of the walls to get at the morsels.